The big first step
The team that has a variety of locals contributing, especially on the offensive end, is usually the one that wins. That could play out once more on Friday when defending champion TNT and Barangay Ginebra chase the all-important 3-2 lead in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals.
Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, with the Tropang 5G coming into the contest hoping to sustain a momentum shift after evening out the best-of-seven affair two nights earlier with a 106-98 victory.
Jordan Heading’s 29 points and Jayson Castro’s 14 highlighted how the Tropang 5G got to not only spoil the coronation of the Ginebra pair of Justin Brownlee as Best Import and RJ Abarrientos being the Best Player of the Conference, but prevent a dreaded 3-1 hole.
Simply put, Game 4 could stand out as one of the best games of Castro in the conference, something timely as he attempts to win another title.
“The problem was the start of Game 3, because we were already down in the first six minutes,” Reyes said, noting how they were able to make necessary adjustments after the Game 3 loss left some of TNT’s main men nonexistent.
“We took a look at how Ginebra got their shots off and we made adjustments with our defense,” added Reyes.
Game 4 marked the first time in the series that no team managed to pull away early, which favored TNT in a big way, with Heading’s timely shooting, Castro’s playmaking in a starting role and the presence of Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Henry Galinato down low.
Reyes’ counterpart, Tim Cone, later conceded that Ginebra couldn’t match up with how TNT played Game 4.
“They out-energized us, they out-physicaled us,” Cone lamented. “Frankly, they outplayed us there in the second half.”
Game 4 also saw Ginebra’s lack of bench support and the offensive struggles of Scottie Thompson and Stephen Holt.
After finally delivering a big scoring production in Game 3 with 23 points, Holt could only manage five points while Thompson, the former MVP who ironically achieved a scoring milestone in Game 4, was held to four points.
Absent bench
That left Ginebra with little support for Brownlee, who dropped 32 and Abarrientos, who had 21.
It was the same dilemma TNT dealt with in previous games. Calvin Oftana bounced back, sort of, from a big drop from 31 points in Game 2 to just two in Game 3. He had 12 points in Game 4, albeit on a 3-of-9 clip.
RR Pogoy, meanwhile, could only put up five points in Game 4 on a 2-of-10 shooting, but the way Heading and Castro performed made his woes a bit forgotten, but it could be told in Game 5.
Game 5 could turn out into a memorable shootout once all of the guns from both sides get to fire on all cylinders on Friday night.
And that is something this series has yet to see with both tacticians putting a premium on defense, like what has been the trademark of their respective careers.
******
Get real-time news updates: inqnews.net/inqviber
